Credit Where Credit Is Due

I'm very much not a fan of either Florida governor Ron DeSantis or Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo. My reasons for disliking DeSantis are legion and I've described them at length elsewhere. My main problem with Ladapo is him getting a second, no-show "job" at the University of Florida, effectively quadrupling his salary at taxpayer expense.

But I do think that when either or both of them do something good, they should be commended for it.

Per the Associatd Press:

Florida plans to become the first state to eliminate vaccine mandates, a longtime cornerstone of public health policy for keeping schoolchildren and adults safe from infectious diseases.

State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who announced the decision Wednesday, cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as “immoral” intrusions on people’s rights that hamper parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.

Elsewhere, I've seen DeSantis quoted as backing that policy change.

I agree with both of them when they support parents (hopefully in consultation with doctors) making medical decisions for their children, rather than politicians and bureaucrats making medical decisions for all children.

You Just Know Surveillance Statists Are Having Orgasms

University of California - Santa Cruz:

[N]ew research from engineers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows how the signal from a household WiFi device can be used for this crucial health monitoring with state-of-the-art accuracy -- without the need for a wearable. ... The team found that the Pulse-Fi system worked regardless of the position of the equipment in the room or the person whose heart rate was being measured ... their system had accurate performance with a person three meters, or nearly 10 feet, away from the hardware. ... the researchers are working on further research to extend their technique to detect breathing rate in addition to heart rate ...

Their devices are cheap to make (chip cost for different prototypes ranged from $5 to $30) and "[m]ore expensive WiFi devices like those found in commercial routers would likely further improve the accuracy of their system."

I don't consider the following hypothetical vis a vis surveillance state actors like Palantir, the NSA, et al. I consider it inevitable.

1. As the different kinds of data that they discover they can gather in this way grows and varies, they'll be able to create data sets that (especially cross-referenced with other data sets, like debit card transactions) make it possible to positively identify individuals to the same degree of certainty as, say, facial recognition systems.
2. As they develop that ability, they'll also develop malware that can infect routers and gather and transmit said data.
3. Routers are everywhere. So at some point they'll be able to ask questions like "who's in that room right now?" "what room of what building in what city in what country is this person in right now?" etc.

The possible applications range from being able to "prove," to some level of credibility, that three parties being investigated on a conspiracy charge were in the same room at the same time on a relevant date, to letting a drone know what room its target is currently in.

I've never been under any illusion as to the ability of the surveillance statists to collect information on specified targets. If they were willing to commit the resources, it was almost impossible to thwart them. 

But the kind of stuff Edward Snowden told us about more than a decade ago just keeps developing. Instead of targeting a particular individual, they just gather everything about everyone and sift it to figure out what they want to know.

Wordle 1540 Hint

Hint: Wyatt Earp -- the movie version, anyway -- didn't need to go heeled to get this on a tub like Johnny Tyler.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle after the ads below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B